MENTAL HEALTH: The Cathedral College student dean Tim Murphy and assistant principal students middle school Karen Lester are bringing The Resilience Project to the school.Allan Reinikka ROK170217aresilie

TCC secures acclaimed Mental Health program

IT'S the highly acclaimed organisation that has implemented programs in more than 300 schools across Australia and worked with every club in the National Rugby League, as well as the Australian cricket and netball teams.

Now The Resilience Project is coming to Rockhampton this week to share its strategies on developing mental health and building resilience with students, staff and parents of The Cathedral College.

Karen Lester, TCC's assistant principal students middle school, said it was a coup for the school to secure the program which is in high demand.

"We were just really keen to provide our students with some strategies to help them with their well being,” she said.

"Obviously the program aligns really closely with our values of gratitude, respect and compassion and we thought it was a really good fit with the pastoral care program we already have in place.

"We thought rather than be reactive we should try to put pro-active strategies in place to do whatever we can to support our students.

"This is a great program because it targets students of all ages, plus staff, plus parents.”

The Resilience Project's Martin Heppell will present to TCC students on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, to staff on Wednesday and to parents on Thursday in a session which has been opened up to parents of students from other Rockhampton schools.

Ms Lester said that Steve Parle, a former TCC staffer who is now at the Brisbane Broncos, had described the program's presentations as "engaging and energetic”.

Ms Lester said when the presentations were complete, Mr Heppell would meet with TCC's implementation team to ensure the program was sustainable through the year.

Part of the follow-up includes a 21-day journalling program for students.

"The idea behind that is to build on what they have learnt from the project and to develop those habits which will hopefully help them lifelong,” Ms Lester said.

"We hope this holistic program will be beneficial for everyone involved.”

Parents interested in attending Thursday's free session can register on the TCC website.